The present invention relates to apparatus for the treatment of refuse and is particularly suited for domestic use or for a community. The present invention is particularly designed to simplify and resolve the numerous and varied problems of space, economy and, above all, sanitary facilities relating to the collection, transport and destruction of solid domestic refuse.
As is known, domestic refuse normally has characteristics which make storage difficult in practice, both in the home and in the community, before removal by those who have the responsibility of performing this task. These characteristics are: a rapid deterioration and a considerable bulk, this latter because of the various boxes, receptacles and casings usually present in large numbers.
These characteristics make it necessary at present to have a relatively large volume of space for depositing the refuse and also a prompt and frequent collection; however, these are not always readily available.
At the domestic level, this problem has been the subject of much thought and can be partially resolved with the use of a waste disposal device in the form of a grinding device which can be fitted to the drainage system of the kitchen sink; however, such grinding devices have not been widely accepted by consumers, both because of the cost and because the grinders cannot dispose of refuse containing metals, glass, ceramics, cardboard, fabrics and plastics, and, above all, because such waste disposal units can create considerable disadvantages in the waste pipes which are not always suitable for this purpose.
At the community level, there have often been adopted systems of refuse collection in plastic sacks; the deterioration problem is mitigated, if not overcome, with the adoption of closable plastic sacks and large closable containers which are located in urban streets or at the entrances to buildings for larger scale collections. Likewise, the adoption of more or less sealed transport lorries which slightly compact the refuse has gone some way toward dealing with the problem.
In the field of distribution of collected refuse experiments are still being performed to find the best solutions, which may or may not involve the utilisation of one or more of these above mentioned arrangements